Draymond Green and Klay Thompson buried three-pointers on consecutive possessions late in the game on Thursday (AEST), allowing the Golden State Warriors to survive the loss of Kevin Durant and hold off the Houston Rockets 104-99 in game five of the western conference semi-finals in Oakland.
Top-seeded Golden State's third narrow win of the best-of-seven series puts the defending champions one victory away from a fifth straight trip to the west finals.
The Warriors will get their first opportunity to earn advancement in game six of the series on Saturday (AEST) in Houston. Game seven, if necessary, would be played Monday (AEST) in Oakland.
After the Rockets rallied from 20 down to take the lead late in the third quarter, and with Durant in the locker room for the final 14 minutes following a calf injury, the Warriors outfinished their fourth-seeded foe.
A three-pointer by Eric Gordon had the Rockets down just 89-88 with 4:49 to play, and a free throw by James Harden kept Houston within 91-89 with 3:39 to go.
But Green then buried his three-pointer, and after a Houston turnover, Thompson bombed in his trey to push the Golden State lead to 97-89 with 2:34 to go.
Houston got as close as three one more time, on a layup by Harden with 18.6 seconds left, before Thompson, after nearly throwing the ball away, dropped in an interior hoop for the clinching basket with 4.1 seconds left.
Durant's injury occurred innocently enough after he hit a jumper from the right side with 2:05 left in the third quarter.
He took a step toward the defensive end of the court before grimacing in pain and looking down at his lower right leg, leading to concerns he might have ruptured his Achilles.
However, the injury was later announced by the Warriors to be a strained right calf.
Thompson finished with 27 points, Stephen Curry 25 and Durant 22 for the Warriors, who continued a run of home wins by the teams in the series.
Andre Iguodala added 11 points, while Green had a brilliant all-around game before fouling out, complementing eight points with 12 rebounds and 11 assists.
Harden was the game's leading scorer with 31 points for the Rockets, who were both outshot by the Warriors from the field 45.9 per cent to 41.8 per cent and outscored on three-pointers 39-36.
Gordon chipped in with 19 points for Houston, while P.J. Tucker had 13 to go with 10 rebounds.
Chris Paul and Iman Shumpert had 11 points apiece, and Houston's Clint Capela was the game's leading rebounder with 14 to go with six points.
The Warriors used a 17-0 burst late in the first half to go up 57-37, only to see the entire advantage disappear before the end of the third period, when Harden's floater gave Houston a 71-70 lead.
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